The present invention relates to polymeric structures having interpenetrating matrices in cured form, comprising a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) network and a polysiloxane network. More particularly, the present invention relates to interpenetrating polymeric networks wherein a curable silicone composition is mixed with PTFE powder and, thereafter, said silicone is cured while simultaneously stretching the silicone/PTFE mixture.
Tetrafluoroethylene polymers and, in particular, polytetrafluoroethylene, are gaining more and more uses because of their chemical inertness and desirable physical properties such as water repellency and electrical insulating abilities. In one very large area, the field of porous articles, their use has been substantially blocked by the very considerable difficulty of making an article porous and keeping it so while providing it with adequate strength. Complicated and expensive processes have been devised such as adding a filler to the polymer prior to shaping and then removing the filler after shaping, for example, by leaching it out of the shaped article with a solvent, or by melting or burning it out.
Gore, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,953,566; 3,962,153; 4,096,227; and 4,187,390, overcame the difficulties of the prior art by stretching PTFE rods as fast as possible so as to provide tetrafluoroethylene polymer having outstanding combinations of high porosity and high strength. Moreover, even though the rod was greatly lengthened its diameter remained virtually unchanged throughout its length. The rapid stretching also transformed the hard, shiny rods into a soft, flexible material. Gore also teaches that there may be included as fillers, silicone fluids having structures represented by the formula ##STR1## where n is from 0 to about 2000 and R is an alkyl or aryl radical.
Products based on rapidly stretching highly crystalline polytetrafluoroethylene include porous films for filters and laminates; fabric laminates of PTFE film bonded to fabric to produce a material having the contradictory properties of impermeability to liquid water and permeability to water vapor, the material being used to make "breathable" rainwear and filters; porous yarn for weaving and braiding into other products such as pump packing; tubes used as replacements for human arteries and veins; and insulation for high performance electric cables.
An interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) is a combination of at least two polymers in network form, at least one of which is synthesized and/or crosslinked in the immediate presence of the other. IPN's can be further classified as sequential IPN's, where the networks are made sequentially, and simultaneous IPN's, where the monomers are mixed together and polymerized by independent and non-interfering routes. Sequential IPN's can also be prepared by swelling a polymer with a monomer and activating agents and, thereafter, polymerizing the monomer in situ.
Since true IPN's require mixing on the molecular level, which is not possible with some polymers due to their well known thermodynamic incompatibility, those skilled in the art often refer to these IPN's as pseudo-IPN's. For purposes of the present invention the terms "interpenetrating polymer network" and "psuedo-interpenetrating polymer network" are used interchangeably and are intended to describe both sequential IPN's and simultaneous IPN's.
Interpenetrating polymeric networks wherein one of the polymers is a polysiloxane are known in the art. Foscante et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,074, discloses an interpenetrating polymer network of a polymerized epoxy resin network intertwined with a polysiloxane network formed by the hydrolytic polycondensation of silane groups. This is achieved by the simultaneous polymerization, at substantially balanced reaction rates, of a mixture of epoxy resin and silane. An amine curing agent forms the epoxy network and water distributed throughout the mixture causes the hydrolytic polycondensation of the silane groups. A preferred method for preparing the IPN is to react epoxy resin with an aminosilane capable of both hydrolytic polycondensation of the silane moiety and amine addition of the oxirane rings of the epoxy resin.
Frisch et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,553, describes interpenetrating polymeric networks characterized by a single glass transition temperature, comprising at least two separate chemically dissimilar macrocyclic structures of crosslinked polymer chains which do not contain ionizable groups and which are crosslinked by different crosslinking agents which crosslink by different crosslinking mechanisms, the polymer chains of one macrocyclic structure being threaded through, but having substantially no intermolecular chemical bonding with, another macrocyclic structure of the interpenetrating polymer network, with the proviso that the macrocyclic structures have rings of at least 20 ring atoms. Suitable crosslinking polymers typically can be polyfunctional polyurethane, polyepoxides, polyesters, polyamides, polyimides, phenolics, polysiloxanes, polysulfides, acrylics, poly (styrenebutadiene), poly (styrene-acrylonitrile), poly (butadiene-acrylonitrile), polychloroprene, poly (chloroprene-acrylonitrile) and poly (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene).
Pierce et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,920, provides a blood contacting layer and a blood contacting interface consisting of a solvent cast polyurethane alloyed with a filler-free silicone rubber. The alloy interface comprises an interpenetrating polymer network consisting of polyurethane and filler-free silicone rubber at the molecular level.
Siegfried et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,499, relates to interpenetrating polymer networks comprised of at least two polymers, the second of which is polymerized in the presence of the first of said polymers, in a mutual solution of said first polymer and a prepolymer or monomer of said second polymer, at least one of said polymers comprising a continuous phase within said composition, said polymers being crosslinked by a non-covalent bonding mechanism selected from the group consisting of (a) ionomeric attraction and (b) block copolymers, each having at least three blocks, at least one of said blocks comprising an elastomeric block and at least two of said blocks comprising physically crosslinked glassy blocks, crystalline blocks or hydrogen bonded blocks, wherein one of said polymers is a triblock copolymer containing monoalkenyl arene polymer end blocks and the other of said polymers is a monoalkenyl arene monomer copolymerized with an acid forming monomer. The crystalline block can be polydiphenylsiloxane and the elastomeric block can be polydimethylsiloxane.
Arkles, U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,688, discloses melt processable compositions comprising a silicone component which is vulcanizable by the reaction of a hydride-containing silicone within a polymeric thermoplastic matrix to form a silicone pseudo-interpenetrating polymer network, said vulcanization of said silicone component being initiated during thermoplastic melt-mixing of said component with said matrix. The polymeric thermoplastic matrices include polyamides, thermoplastic polyurethanes, bisphenol A polycarbonates, styrenics and polyacetals.
All of the foregoing patents are incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.